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Bitcoin at $103K hurtles MARA stack toward $5B, holdings triple

Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings (MARA) nearly tripled its Bitcoin holdings over 12 months, according to its newly released Q1 results.

However, its Bitcoin production fell, and total earnings slightly missed Wall Street estimates in Q1.

MARA, formerly Marathon Digital, saw its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings increase to 47,531 BTC, up 175% from the 17,320 BTC the firm was holding at the end of Q1 2024.

MARA holdings inch closer to $5B after Bitcoin pump

MARA holds the second-largest amount of Bitcoin among all publicly traded companies, according to CoinGecko data. Strategy (MSTR) holds the number one spot with 555,450 Bitcoin.

The holdings represent a total value of approximately $4.9 billion, based on Bitcoin’s current price of $102,660 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s price spiked

Is Ripple’s Hidden Road deal part of a SoftBank-like playbook?

Ripple has made a slew of acquisitions to control key transaction rails and route them through XRP and its stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), drawing comparisons to Japanese investment firm SoftBank.

The $1.25-billion acquisition of Hidden Road on April 8 allows Ripple to use RLUSD as collateral in the firm’s prime brokerage products. Hidden Road will also migrate its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger, the blockchain that underpins cryptocurrency XRP (XRP) and several of Ripple’s institutional services.

Omni Network co-founder Austin King knows Ripple’s strategy firsthand. He sold his startup, Strata Labs, to Ripple in 2019 and describes the approach as a “SoftBank-type” acquisition strategy.

Instead of in-house development like Google or Meta (formerly Facebook), SoftBank built its empire through aggressive investments, joint ventures and acquisitions. Ripple seems to be following a similar playbook, but not everyone’s convinced

SEC’s Crenshaw slams Ripple settlement, warns of ‘regulatory vacuum’

A crypto-skeptical commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission has blasted her agency over its settlement letter that could finally end the Ripple legal saga.

The SEC and Ripple filed a joint settlement letter in a New York court asking for the August 2024 injunction against Ripple to be dissolved and $75 million of the $125 million in civil penalties held in escrow to be returned to the crypto firm, according to a May 8 statement from the SEC.

SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw blasted the pending deal in a May 8 statement, saying it would damage the regulators’ ability to keep crypto firms in line and undermine the court’s ruling.

Source: James Filan

“This settlement, alongside the programmatic disassembly of the SEC’s crypto enforcement program, does a tremendous disservice to the investing

Coinbase revenue falls 10% in Q1, missing industry estimate

Crypto exchange Coinbase’s total revenue fell 10% quarter-over-quarter to $2 billion in Q1, missing industry estimates by 4.1% as trading activity slowed across the market.

Coinbase’s net income was sliced by 95% from a near-company record $1.29 billion in Q4 to $66 million, in a large part due to Coinbase marking a $596 million paper loss on its crypto holdings.

The firm’s earnings per share of $1.94, however, managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.85 for the quarter.

Coinbase’s May 8 results also showed that transaction revenue fell 18.9% quarter-on-quarter to $1.26 billion, as did trading volumes, which dipped 10.5% to $393 billion as crypto market cap dropped by double digits over the quarter, partly attributed to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

In contrast, US President Donald Trump’s election win in November was considered one of the

Meta exploring stablecoin integration for payouts: Report

Tech company Meta is reportedly exploring integrating stablecoin payments into its platforms after a three-year hiatus from cryptocurrencies, Fortune reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Facebook parent held talks with several crypto infrastructure firms in consultation but has not chosen a decisive course of action, according to the report.

One source said the company may take a multi-token approach and integrate support for popular stablecoins such as Tether’s USDt (USDT), Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) and others.

Meta is the latest tech firm to integrate or explore the use of stablecoins for payments, as they increasingly attract institutional interest and investment, causing the stablecoin market capitalization to soar past $230 billion.

An overview of the stablecoin market. Source: RWA.XYZ

Stablecoins

Wellgistics Health to integrate XRP into payment infrastructure

Wellgistics Health, a healthcare infrastructure company, will integrate XRP (XRP) and related technologies into its payment network to streamline transactions between pharmacies, medical suppliers and prescription medication manufacturers, the company said in an announcement on May 8.

Wellgistics cited the finality time of XRP transactions and reduced transaction costs, which are fractions of a penny, compared to legacy financial architecture like automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments or wire transfers, as reasons for using XRP. Brian Norton, CEO of Wellgistics Health, said in the announcement:

“I believe that the future winners in healthcare will not be the companies with the biggest buildings, they will be those with the fastest rails, cleanest data, and most efficient platforms. We are betting on infrastructure — not inertia.”

The integration of XRP will reduce cross-border friction and

Coinbase's Deribit buy shows growing derivatives market

Coinbase’s agreement to buy Deribit highlights the increasing importance of financial derivatives for cryptocurrency exchanges, according to industry executives.

On May 8, Coinbase, the US’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, agreed to acquire crypto derivatives platform Deribit for $2.9 billion in the crypto industry’s largest corporate acquisition to date.

The deal reflects increasing competition among digital asset exchanges and brokerages — including Coinbase, Kraken and Robinhood — to dominate the burgeoning crypto derivatives market.

“Global derivatives trading is a key driver of growth for Coinbase,” Spencer Yang, co-founder of Fractal Bitcoin, a Bitcoin scaling solution, told Cointelegraph.

Coinbase agreed to buy Deribit on May 8. Source: Coinbase

The merger established Coinbase as the world’s largest crypto derivatives platform by open interest, the exchange said in a blog post announcing the deal.

In a May 8 X <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/dgt10011/status/1920463989345013938"

Bitcoin options could pave the path for new BTC price highs — Here is how

Key takeaways:

97% of the $8.3 billion in Bitcoin put options expire worthless at a $102,000 BTC price.

Short covering above $105,000 could trigger a Bitcoin price rally to new highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) soared above $101,000 on May 8, reaching its highest level in over three months. The 4.6% daily BTC price gain triggered $205 million in liquidations of bearish futures positions and eroded the value of nearly every put (sell) option. Traders now question whether Bitcoin is poised to break its $109,354 all-time high in the near term.

Bitcoin put (sell) options open interest for May-June-July, USD notional. Source: Laevitas.ch

The aggregate Bitcoin put (sell) option open interest for the next three months stands at $8.3 billion, but 97% of those have been placed below $101,000 and will likely expire worthless. Still, this does not mean every put options trader was betting on Bitcoin’s downside, as some may have

Former FTX exec's wife says gov't 'induced a guilty plea'

Michelle Bond, the wife of former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame, who faces federal campaign finance charges, is pushing for dismissal on the grounds that US prosecutors deceived her husband in a plea deal.

In a May 7 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bond’s lawyers reiterated some of the claims Salame made in opposing his plea deal with the government, which ultimately still led to him serving time in prison. She claimed that prosecutors obtained a deal with Salame through “stealth and deception” by allegedly agreeing they would not file charges against Bond.

“Mr. Salame and Ms. Bond’s attorneys were advised that the agreement to cease investigating Ms. Bond could not be placed within the four corners of the Salame plea or other written agreement, but the government still offered it as an inducement to induce the plea,”

Mashinsky’s 12-year sentence sets tone of enforcement in Trump era

The US federal court for the Southern District of New York has sentenced former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky to 12 years in prison for fraud.

Mashinsky’s legal team sought a light sentence. They highlighted his spotless record before the Celsius incident, along with his military service and willingness to plead guilty. But US prosecutors were less inclined to leniency, suggesting on April 28 that the judge deliver a 20-year sentence for his actions.

Betting markets predicted a light sentence ahead of the May 8 hearing. Polymarket showed only 11% odds for a 20-year sentence or higher.

Source: Polymarket

President Donald Trump began his second term with high-profile pardons of crypto executives, signalling that his administration may bring leniency to crypto fraudsters like Mashinsky. His sentencing today, however, suggests otherwise.

Trump’s DOJ wants Mashinsky sentence to serve as a warning